Hickenlooper will join former Gov. Bill Ritter, a Democrat, and former Gov. Bill Owens, a Republican, for a news conference at 10:30 a.m. in The Denver Post auditorium. The event was originally scheduled for outdoors, but was moved inside because of concerns about tomorrow’s weather.

The ballot measure would ask voters to:

* Change the current testing system for job applicants from one that uses a strictly “competitive” test to a “comparative” test.

* Change the current rule that limits the number of finalists for a job that can be considered to three and increase the number to six.Increase the amount of time state agencies can employ temporary workers from six months to nine months.

* Change the current requirement that says applicants for most jobs have to be Colorado residents and give the state personnel director some discretion to alter the requirement. The change also would allow out-of-state applicants for jobs that are within 30 miles of the state’s border, where requiring only in-state applicants often makes it hard to fill jobs with qualified applicants.

* Redraw membership on the state personnel board so that members serve three-year, rather than five-year, terms and limits them to two terms. In addition, two members would serve at the governor’s pleasure.

Not to mention it will increase the number of non civil service employees, by changing current cs positions to non-civil service (e.g. political appointees not subject to pay grade maximums, yet still qualified for the plush retirement benefits based on those non-capped wages.).

just the facts

It exempts no more than 1% (about 300 of 30,000) of the classified system and only specific jobs that are high level and generally report to the executive directors. It’s mostly people who are already in the Senior Executive Service (SES) and are thus on annual contracts as it is. It makes it easier for an executive director to ensure that their key staff share the same values and vision as they do so they can get things accomplished in the short time they are in their appointed positions.

BoJoJovi

They need to eliminate many of the employee protection mechanisms to supervisors can actually get rid of dead weight. Tenure has nothing on a state employee. It is truly a job for life no matter how bad you are.

And there’s http://www.VoteYesOnS.com too. Folks should know that the above site was created by Colorado WINS, which is the union that represents state employees but has a significantly small membership. They have remained neutral on the measure.

Lynn Bartels thinks politics is like sports but without the big salaries and protective cups. The Washington Post's "The Fix" blog has named her one of Colorado's best political reporters and tweeters.

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.